May December (Haynes, 2023)
On this day a year ago, my interview with writer/director Todd Haynes was played on At the Movies. He was promoting his most recent film, May December, in which Natalie Portman plays an actor researching a role by visiting a woman (Julianne Moore) who had become notorious for sleeping with and then marrying and having children with a 13-year-old co-worker (Charles Melton).
I don’t get to do interviews very often – and I’m a bit wary of becoming a “showbiz” reporter so I don’t seek them out – but I really enjoyed talking to Haynes and then editing our conversation for a 13-minute At the Movies segment.
I reviewed the film here not long after:
In this case, the way that Portman goes about her work, it feels kind of exploitative, predatory. Which in a way is appropriate because the character she is going to play gained her notoriety for exactly the same thing. She was once jailed for the crime of statutory rape, having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old colleague at the pet store where she worked. (The character is inspired by Mary Kay Letourneau, who as an elementary school teacher abused, had children to and then married Vili Fualaau.)
The film could be about the process an actor goes through and how that process appears to normal people, or it’s a portrait of a relationship whose complexity is almost impossible to divine, or – as Haynes suggested to me when I interviewed him for RNZ – it’s about who gets to tell our stories and define our narratives.
Oh well, it’s his film, he should probably know.
I know today is Valentine’s Day, and this is a fundamentally inappropriate choice for date night movie, but if you tune in to Nights on RNZ tonight at 9.40 I’ll have a better recommendation.
Where to watch May December
Aotearoa: Digital rental including from AroVision
Australia: Streaming on Prime Video, Binge and Foxtel
Canada & USA: Streaming on Netflix
Ireland & UK: Streaming on Sky
India: Streaming on Prime Video
